British Pentagon Hacker Loses Extradition Appeals

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British Pentagon Hacker Loses Extradition Appeals

Britain's High Court on Friday rejected two extradition appeals by Pentagon hacker and 9/11 truther Gary "Solo" McKinnon, who's trying to avoid a U.S. trial for cracking nearly 100 Pentagon and NASA computers in 2001 and 2002.

If convicted, McKinnon, 43, faces anywhere from six months to six-and-a-half years in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, depending on how much damage he caused, and other factors.

Lawyers for McKinnon argued that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith failed to consider McKinnon's recent diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome when ordering his extradition, and that British prosecutors should charge the hacker in Britain, where he lives. But Judge Stanley Burnton said in a 41-page opinion Friday that extradition was "a lawful and proportionate response to his offending," according to the AP.

McKinnon is accused of breaching 97 unclassified systems: 53 Army computers, 26 Navy, 16 NASA, and one each at the Department of Defense and Air Force. He allegedly crashed some systems, in one case deleting critical files and causing the shutdown of the Army's Military District of Washington network of over 2,000 computers for 24 hours. Federal prosecutors claim McKinnon's intrusions – which took place from February 2001 to March 2002 – caused over $700,000 in damage.

"U.S. foreign policy is akin to government-sponsored terrorism these days," McKinnon wrote on a hacked Army computer in 2002. "It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year … I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels."

In interviews, McKinnon has admitted a hacking spree, which he says was a "moral crusade" in search of evidence of a military UFO cover-up. He has long denied doing any damage, but his lawyers recently said that McKinnon intended to cause "temporary impairment" of U.S. military computers.

In April 2003 McKinnon rejected a written plea offer that would have given him six months to a year in a U.S. low security prison, followed by a transfer back to the UK, where he would have been eligible for parole six months later.

In November 2004, the U.S. formally sought his extradition, leading to a long string of legal proceedings and appeals that have turned the hacker into a cause célèbre in Britain, where he's seen as the hapless victim of an overreaching American government and an unbalanced extradition treaty. UK press reports often claim McKinnon is facing 60 or 70 years in a maximum security prison, in stories sometimes punctuated by images of tough-looking convicts or descriptions of aging state penitentiaries and federal supermax prisons.

McKinnon's supporters now include members of Parliament, and a host of celebrities like Peter Gabriel and Sting. Musicians Bob Geldof, Chrissie Hynde and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour recently joined with McKinnon to record a customized version of the 1970 protest song Chicago, which was originally about the trial of the Chicago Eight.

You can change the world rearrange the worldIt’s dying – if you believe in justiceDying – and if you believe in freedomDying – Give Gary back his lifeDying – make a world we can believe in, open up the door

McKinnon's lawyers said they plan new appeals. The hacker's mother, Janis Sharp, went on British television Friday to ask President Barack Obama to personally intervene in the case.

"I think Obama probably doesn’t know about it, and he's got so many things to consider, but I’m really desperately trying to get through to Obama, because this is from the Bush era, it's a holdover from the Bush era," said Sharp. "It’s not of Obama. He would not want this to happen."